GOALS

One year from now:

Personal: I hope to be preparing for grad school (and maybe moving out of Florida). I want to still be pursuing writing, designing, and maybe having more works published.

Professional: I would like to have learned more about who I am as a teacher and/or writer.


Five years from now:

Personal: I hope to be living somewhere that I like and enjoy. I'd like to have a stable source of income and somewhere to live with books and maybe access to a roof. I really like roofs. Ideally, I'd still be designing, writing, and publishing.

Professional: I hope that whatever profession I decide to pursue is fun and interesting. Hopefully, by this point, I'll be pretty good at what I'm doing.

Ten years:

Personal: Mostly the same as five years from now. I just really hope to be happy, above all else. Stable living situation. It'd be a shame if, at this point, I abandoned my creative endeavors, so I hope that I don't.

Professional: By this point, I'd love to be respected and comfortable with my profession. Hopefully my experiences, thus fur, will have shaped me into being strong.

End of Career:

Personal: I'm not sure when my career will end, but I do hope that I'm still happy and doing creative things. I guess at this point I'd love to say I've travelled a decent bit? Fallen in love? Something like that.

Professional: If I haven't become a master yet, I just hope to feel satisfied with what I've done. I don't think pride really has much of a place in my life, but I'd love to be able to feel proud of myself.

Successful Classroom Disciplinarian

In high school, I had an English teacher named Mr. Tiernan. He was one of my favorite, if not my actual favorite, teachers growing up. For the most part, he fostered a relaxing, low-risk environment where mutual respect played a crucial role. Because he spoke to us with interest, and treated our feelings and comments as valid, we did the same for him. I can't recall more than one or two instances where he ever raised his voice, or actually had to discipline someone. I think the reason his students were so inclined to behave properly is because they just genuinely liked Tiernan and didn't want to upset him. So, ironically, he was a successful classroom disciplinarian to me because he hardly ever had to discipline. This isn't because he was gifted the greatest classes or anything, he was just so well-liked for all of the things he did right.

My relationship with Tiernan was great. We never had any disputes of any kind, and I'm sure several of his students over the years can say the same thing.

Teacher Discipline

A teacher that comes to mind as being a successful classroom disciplinarian is Mr. Tiernan. I had him for 10th grade English and Creative Writing. I believe he was successful at implementing discipline (whenever he needed to) because he was simply so personable. This created a level of respect between him and his students, which inadvertently made his students behave without much strictness. Because he was so well liked, no one wanted to severely disobey him or make him upset. Additionally, his leniency and trust with us created a great classroom environment for everyone. Whenever there was misbehavior, I remember Tiernan reacting calmly but directly-- he would never yell, just address the matters at hand. My relationship with Tiernan was great. He's probably the teacher I miss the most from grade school.

Traffic Lights

Red - I've certainly been stopped by my own inability to get started. Whether or not this is from outside distractions or pure laziness, there's something wired in my brain (a little dramatic?) that stops my own self from starting. This applies to getting ahead and planning, for certain. Similarly, I believe I am plagued, to an extent, by a fear of commitment. Committing to a longstanding plan can be scary for me, unfortunately.

Yellow - I've begun to move ahead by understanding that whatever plans I commit to can be altered, modified, or even abandoned if need be. Convincing myself that nothing is completely set in stone has been hard, but it's certainly helped. Similarly, I have a genuine interest in the benefits of planning, and at times this interest can overpower my laziness :-)

Green - As I get older, I think I feel more and more comfortable with planning. There are certainly immense mental hurdles to get over, but I think with time it becomes manageable. It can be good to practice and familiarize yourself with things you may not feel too comfortable with. I've been told too much comfort can be disgusting. I think there's a truth to that.

Connect, Extend, Challenge

Connect - There was a handful of aspects of writing lesson plans that I definitely was not aware of. I learned that it's direly important to not only be thorough with planning, but creative and and engaging as well. A lesson plan, if utilized correctly, can be a real life saver, in all honesty. It's the framework that will help you provide knowledge for those who, in some cases, have no prior insight into a topic or subject. On a smaller level, I learned about the subtle differences between Goals and Objectives, which is important in learning the etiquettes of professionalism.

Extend - My prior knowledge was challenged by how helpful I found lesson plans to be. I sort of, for whatever reason, figured that teaching a lesson would be incredibly easy to do without any kind of plan. You know, almost as if winging it was the best way to go about things. I think that teachers can deviate (pretty far, at times) from lesson plans and still be fine, but there definitely needs to be something gluing all of the pieces together.

Challenge - I think one of the biggest challenges for me will be planning ahead. For the most part, I think I understand the basics of teaching and maintaining a positive environment. But, I still to this day procrastinate more than I'd like to admit. Teaching involves really careful and elaborate planning, sometimes months in advance, and that simple aspect is sort of at a complete end from my normal approaches to things. I dunno, hopefully I can conquer it!

Gender Equity & Creating Safe Spaces

While conversations about gender equity may be difficult to have, I think they are incredibly important to have. In my classroom, I hope to create a community that is welcoming and warming for EVERYONE, regardless of sexual preference or gender. If a student in my classroom identifies with a gender that doesn't correspond with the one they were assigned at birth, that is completely fine with me. I have many friends at the moment who do not fall under the umbrella of "cisgendered," and I know how important it is to them to be treated with respect. I anticipate that some students may not be "used" to being around transgender or non-binary classmates, and probably have misconceptions about both. That being said, it's important to me that they respect their classmates, and if need be, I'm prepared to speak to them in private about the necessity for understanding and compassion. I do not intend on addressing the issue to the entire classroom, only because I would hate to bring unwanted attention to students, but if they were to request that I address the entire class, I would.

The classroom needs to be a safe space. Now more than ever. Students and faculty need to be forward thinking and loving-- to everyone!

My Part in the "System"

Local Setting:

I hope to have a positive influence in the local setting. If I become a teacher, I intend on being actively involved with my students, and as a result, involved with their parents, too. I want to foster a welcoming environment, and I think a good way to go about doing that is to receive input and insight from those in my immediate community. At the moment, it's hard to predict how innovative and exciting my teaching will be, but I do hope I can be looked at by my faculty as a source of inspiration for creative and interesting assignments and strategies!


State and District:

Honestly, even though I am a goal driven individual, I do not think I will strive to have a large influence that extends beyond the local setting. While I have admiration for those working to better the district for my students and my peers, it does not seem like something I will play a very active role in. Of course, if there are meetings that I can attend to be well informed on district and state matters, polls to vote on, or surveys to fill out, I'd happily do so. Like I said, I want to foster a welcoming environment, and am willing to take several steps in order to do so.


Broadest Setting:

As I said, I do think I will serve a large role in the broadest setting. I'd like to be part of a union, which may in turn influence the broad setting, but it's hard to say at the moment. I would like to set a good example as a teacher in my school, one who is understanding of cultural and socioeconomic differences, and if my example can better the entire state or nation, then that'd be great! I recently saw a video of a teacher that had secret handshakes with each of his students. It had millions upon millions of views, which countless comments from admiring teachers. Maybe that could be me? Who knows! :-)